This invention relates to a time-keeping apparatus and method, and more particularly to a time-keeping apparatus and method based on units of time other than conventional hours, minutes, and seconds. The apparatus itself is especially suited as a novelty device for those who enjoy approaching conventional tasks, in an unconventional manner. The invention is also especially well suited as a novelty device for astrologers.
Time-keeping devices and methods have undoubtedly existed since the beginning of man. Early systems primarily relied upon the apparent rotation of the sun relative to the earth as the basic time unit (that unit being a day, or "solar day"). Probably the earliest methods and devices used to divide the day into fixed increments of time included observing the relative position of the sun in the sky. This was done either directly, or by noting the direction of shadow cast by an object close to the sun. The sun dial, of course, became a refinement of this technique.
Other methods and devices for keeping time that were not dependant upon the sun were also developed. For example, the force of gravity was used to cause sand to fall through a narrow opening (the hourglass). Gravity was also used to cause a pendulum of a fixed length to swing back and forth at a fixed period.
As man and science progressed, and as the cyclic nature of the earth's rotations and season's were noted, the need for constant time standards became more and more apparent. While any phenomenon that repeats itself can be used as a measure of time, there has always existed a need to coordinate and standardize the measure of time. That is, a universal system for keeping time has been, and always will be, needed to enable an ordered society to function. A person needs to know the "time of day" so that his activities can be ordered and coordinated with the activities of others. The standard time units of "hours," and "minutes," and "seconds," along with the 24-hour day, have served for many years now as an effective method for keeping time.
The definition of an hour is 60 minutes. The definition of a minute is 60 seconds. The definition of a second is traditionally thought to be 1/86,400 of a mean solar day. This definition, however, is only approximate, and scientists long ago realized that a more precise definition of a "second" was needed. While the precise definition of a second for scientific purposes has also evolved (there being several definitions available), it appears that the more recent trend is to define a second in atomic terms as the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfying levels of the ground state of the Cesium-133 atom. See IEEE Standard Dictionary of Electrical & Electronics Terms, p. 617 (2d Ed. 1978).
Despite the universal and precise definition of a "second," the solar day remains the basic time unit around which most people order their lives. That is, most people are accustomed to rising, eating, working, and sleeping at certain times of the day depending upon the relative position of the sun. However, without direct reference to the sun, these times of the day are measured more conventionally in terms of hours, minutes, and seconds. It is interesting to note that legislation has even been enacted throughout most of the United States to "shift" references to the conventional time units (hours) forwards in order to allow more daylight hours during the evening hours of the summer (Daylight Savings Time). During the summer, of course, the number of daylight hours increases significantly over the number of daylight hours during the winter. Legislators, responding to the wishes of the majority of the people, have felt that it would be more advantageous to take advantage of these extra daylight hours during the evening, rather than the morning (when many people are sleeping). Thus, Daylight Savings Time legislation has been enacted throughout most of the United States.
One obvious effect of Daylight Savings, whether intended or not, is to begin the day for a majority of the people (those who sleep at night and work during the day) at approximately the same time relative to the mean rising time of the sun. That is, because of Daylight Savings Time, most people, on the average, begin their day, by rising at approximately the same mean time at which the sun rises.
The rising of the sun, however, is unfortunately not the time at which the day officially or legally begins. Rather, a day officially begins at 12:00 midnight, and most people don't rise until six or seven hours after this time. Moreover, 12:00 midnight is not a logical starting point for beginning a count of the hours that transpire during the day because one hour after 12:00 midnight the count jumps back to 1:00 o'clock.
Another problem with the present, or conventional method of keeping time, is that there are twenty-four hours a day and most clocks are designed only to display twelve hours. Thus, separate designations must be used, such as a.m. and p.m., to distinguish the morning hours from the afternoon hours. This problem has been effectively delt with by the Military, which uses a twenty-four hour time system. That is, in the Military the time 12:00 midnight (the beginning of the legal day) is approximately and logically referred to as 00:00 hours. Similarly, 6:00 a.m. is referred to as 06:00 hours, 12:00 noon is 12:00 hours, and 11:59 p.m. is referred to as 23:59 hours. Despite this more logical approach used by the Military, however, its system of measuring time remains virtually unused for the majority of civilian purposes.